FIG. 17 is a front view of a conventional refrigerator 1 disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-255048. FIG. 18 is a cross sectional view of the refrigerator 1 at line 18-18 shown in FIG. 17. FIG. 19 is a front view of a machine compartment 40 in the refrigerator 1. The refrigerator 1 includes a heat-insulating housing 5. The heat-insulating housing 5 includes an outer box 2 providing an outer wall, an inner box 3 providing an inner wall, and a urethane insulator 4 foamed between the outer box 2 and the inner box 3. The heat-insulating housing 5 is separated by a partition wall 6 into upper and lower sections to be a refrigerator compartment 7 and a freezer compartment 8, respectively. A condenser 20 is attached to an inner side of the outer box 2 with heat-conductive adhesive tapes 21, such as aluminum foil strips, for causing the outer box 2 to radiate heat from the condenser 20. The machine compartment 40 is located at the lower rear of the refrigerator 1 and accommodates a compressor 41, a blower 42, a condenser 43, a dryer 44, and a capillary tube (not shown) which provide a refrigeration cycle. The condenser 43 includes a pipe 51 in which a refrigerant runs and fins 50 fixed onto the pipe 51 for radiation of heat from the pipe 51. The pipe 51 is wound densely. The blower 42, the condenser 43, and the compressor 41 are arranged in this order from a wall of the machine compartment 40. This arrangement allows the condenser 43 to receive air directly from the blower 42 for increasing its efficiency of heat exchange and thus its heat radiating capability.
The condenser 43 in the machine compartment 40 is located at the downstream of air from the blower 42. The air from the blower 42 flows into beneath the condenser 43 having a small flow resistance but does not flow sufficiently towards the condenser 43. The air above the condenser 43 is located far away from a rotation axis 42a of the blower 42. The condenser 43 interrupts the flow of the air, and accordingly reduces the speed of the flow and allows the air to be partially trapped, thus decreasing efficiency of heat exchange. The trapping of the air causes dusts or dirt sneaked into the machine compartment 40 to remain and to be accumulated on the fins 50 and the pipe 51 of the condenser 43, and accordingly decreases the heat radiation capability during a long-time operation. This increases a condensation temperature and a compression ratio, and decreases a coefficient of performance (COP), a primary energy conversion rate, which is the ratio of the refrigerating capability to the power consumption, accordingly increasing an overall power consumption of the refrigerator 1.
FIG. 20 is a perspective view of a machine compartment 40A of another conventional refrigerator 1A disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-167547. A condenser 43A includes a straight portion 80 and bent portions 81 for allowing the condenser to be installed in a thin space at the bottom of the refrigerator 1A. This increases the area for radiation of heat and a heat radiating efficiency.
The condenser 43A is installed in the thin space, the bottom of the refrigerator 1A. In order to provide the condenser 42 with a long overall